Monday, July 07, 2008
God the Father
I sometimes take God as Father for granted. Just this morning I saw exactly why God is my Father. I read in Colossians that God has qualified me, a person reading Colossians and entrusted with it by previous Christians; that God has qualified me, a person who has sinned openly, arrogantly, hiddenly; that God has qualified me to share in the inheritance that belongs to his Son and those in his Son's kingdom. I call God Father because I am in his Son's kingdom and this is by his invitation, by his rescue.
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2 comments:
I am in agreement with you, Aaron, in that I have also taken God as Father for granted....and I would say it was more like "often" than "sometimes" in the past. God the Son...no problem there. I always maintained an awareness of his love for me and the relationship he made possible. God the Spirit...a daily companion. One of the most exciting aspects of my journey over the past several years has been grasping the love of the Father for his children, which included me, and particularly in seeing how much he delights in us, as any father delights in his children.
One image that held some special meaning for me was in Luke 10 where Jesus had sent out the 72 ahead of himself to the towns and villages. This explanation is one of my favorites about this Father we share and, according to Jesus, what delights his heart:
"[Jesus'] disciples had just returned from going through the villages of Palestine sharing the good news of the kingdom. They had watched blind people see for the first time; lepers weep in joy at the touch of their new skin; and people oppressed by demons dancing in joy at suddenly being returned to their right mind.
To get the impact of this, we have to remember who they were. We think of them now as "The Apostles", men of great wisdom, character and training. We forget that at the time they were simply bad fishermen, tax collectors and who knows what else. Far from being highly respected religious people, they were normal, every-day people who had been infused with God's life, power and a bit of his wisdom.
Here, for the only time in Scripture, we are told that Jesus was "full of joy" and declared: "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure."
What gives the Father pleasure? Revealing his life to people the world would have little regard for. That's the point here, isn't it? His emphasis is not who God hides things from, but who he reveals them to. And he delights to reveal himself to people like Peter, Bartholomew and Matthew those who still fought over who would be first in the kingdom, who still didn't understand the full import of Jesus' mission, who couldn't even figure out most of the stories Jesus told.
And he delights to reveal his will, his plans and his power to you as much as [a father] enjoys hearing the laughter of [his] children." (The Father's Delight, Jacobsen, BodyLife 1996)
Hi Beth,
Thank you so much for sharing that awesome quotation. Some friends and I just went through Mark and it was amazing to see Jesus intentionally bring into his political following people that normally wouldn't have been chosen. It's an amazing picture of transformation and grace and hope and, like you did so well pointing out, LOVE.
I love the picture from Zephaniah 3 of God rejoicing over us in singing.
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